Jeff Mallory - Mallory's Detail Shop - on the Calling All Detailers Podcast

Speaker A: Calling all detailers, but just guiding every grind, helping detailers make more money one show at a time.

Speaker B: Doing this is David Elliott from the Perk, from, from Pearl Nano and calling all detailers. We got Jeff Mallory from Mallory's Detail Shop. How's it going, Jeff?

Speaker C: Oh, it's going all right.

Speaker B: Great, great. We had a little technical difficulty getting connected here, but we, we got you on the phone and on video. How are things going and how did you get into all this?

Speaker C: Um, things are going as both as good can be expected this time of year where I'm located. Um, how I got into this, I don't really know, to tell you the honest truth. It's just something I've been doing since I was probably. I think we sat down, figured it out. It was either 11 or 12 years old. I started detailing cars. So, uh, I'm 47, so I've been doing it for a while.

Speaker B: Yes, yes, yes. And, and okay, so you're in Michigan and you're having to deal with the weather and you have a shop, you're fully mobile. What's going on?

Speaker C: No, I've, I couldn't do, I just couldn't make it work doing a mobile. I think where I'm at, don't get me wrong, there's guys that are doing a mobile, but like, uh, this time of year right now, well, it's warm today and it's 37 degrees. Um, the other morning I came out and it was 5 degrees. How do you detail a car in 5 degree weather? I just, I don't want to relearn how to do that stuff. So, uh, it was an experiment. When I started my shop, um, I start playing with some ceramics and whatnot. And I just had to keep turning people down. I didn't have a facility to do it. Um, and when I started keeping track of how many people I turned down, it was over 120 people in the first year. Wow. And uh, my parents are like, is there something to this? I'm like, I don't know. So we had uh, a pole barn that we just put up at my parents place. They're like, let's split it and see what happens. Just put a shop in there and see what happens. Um, I worked at part time for, oh, I worked it part time for probably a year and a half, two years and a couple days a week. Ended up turning seven days a week. And my wife's like, no, this, this ain't gonna, you gotta choose one or the other. So I'm like, well, let's give it a shot, see what happens. And this will be my fifth year full time.

Speaker B: Excellent, excellent. Sounds like it's going great. Right.

Speaker C: Um, through the summer I'm swamped. Um, this time of year gets a little bit slow. You gotta get creative on what you do.

Speaker B: Right, right. I do work with Rocco Santilli in Connecticut. It also gets pretty cold there as well. He has a couple side hustles. He does car storage so he has a lot of high end customers and he stores cars and he has all winter to wrap them with PPF or polish them and ceramic coat them. So that's just an idea, you know, something you may want to think of.

Speaker C: I've uh, we're actually in the works of right now. Um, I'm going to move my shop from my parents place and I'm going to build a garage onto my house. Um and that's where we're going to move stuff. I'm m not going to have enough room for storage. But uh, I a one car shop right now. Uh, I've got a Chevy dually sitting in front of me and when I put that in the shop there's barely enough room to walk around it. It's a 22 by 32 foot bay is what I'm working out of. So the storage idea is actually a really really great idea and I uh, wish I had the area to do it but yeah, that's just not in the means for me.

Speaker B: Well I mean you could look at some you know, outlying uh, warehouses. He also has lifts so it's not just one car. He's lifting the Ferrari up and putting this Porsche underneath it. And so he's, he's pretty creative on his spaces but uh, I would love

Speaker C: to go see that.

Speaker B: Yeah, that's uh, yeah, you go see him anytime. Rocco Santilli and uh, RS Detailing in Connecticut. Nice guy, awesome guy. So the other thing that comes to mind is Chris over in Buffalo, New York. He was a marble guy and built a shop m just like you're saying, off of his house. Quit his job a few years ago, been full time ever since. Knocks out a car, a car a day and he's doing fantastic. And that's 716 coatings.

Speaker C: Okay. Yeah, that's, that's kind of where I'm at is like I do at least a detail a day make ends meet. Um, I just finished a whole uh, a whole big mess which set me up for the winter pretty good this year. Uh, one of our local co ops or elevators ended uh, up Having a big mess. I think I ended up doing 16 vehicles that had overspray on them and six, uh, pieces of equipment. And when I say equipment, I had a excavator sitting outside of my shop. I had a brand new dozer sitting out there like it was a mess. But, uh, yeah, it's where I'm at. You can't say no to anything. I mean, you gotta take whatever I've done. Anything from, like I said, an excavator, which is first for me. Uh, we're in a farming community, so I'm doing tractors, semi trucks. Um, I've done snowmobiles, motorcycle. Like if you can get it in my yard, I'll do it. And I'll even come to you to do something too. So it's, I haven't said no yet and it's bit me more than once.

Speaker B: Right, right. Well, I just did the podcast with Ian, uh, and he's over in North Dakota and he's had to go. He, he's doing all kinds of farm equipment and big balers and I don't even know the names of some of these machines and, and forklifts. But then he's into planes as well and, and he's consulting with other detailers, he's doing all kinds of different things. He's traveling. And so, uh, there's, there's other options out there. I just did the podcast with, uh, with Rob Torres. He shuts down for the winter in Massachusetts and then he's going to Florida and doing some, some awesome stuff. In Florida for the winter.

Speaker C: Yeah, I, I did have an opportunity. One of my good customers up here, um, has a place down in Florida and he was trying to get me to come down there and it's like, I, I don't even know how to bid something like that. And what we came down to agree or, uh, I don't know if we agreed, I didn't end up going, but I'm like, hey, listen, this is how much I can make a day in my shop. I, I'm guessing it's going to take me this many days. This is what it's going to cost you to get me to come down there. And he's like, man, that's kind of expensive. And I'm like, I got friends down in Florida that'll do just a good job as me. I'm like, you don't have to ship me down to Florida to do a couple vehicles. So, um, that didn't end up panning out. Um, and the biggest reason was it was timing. My wife's cpa, so it was during tax season, and I got two boys, and I'm like, it just. It's not gonna work. So it's. Yep. You can never say no in, in this. In this business, you got to be willing to push, uh, the boundaries a little bit with what you're willing.

Speaker B: Right, right, right. So tractors, tractor trailers, you know, whatever it is. I mean, you can't fit a tractor trailer in your shop, but, uh, in the summertime, I'm sure you could figure out how to get it done. But. So, okay, so let's go to another topic. How are people finding you locally and getting you, uh, one car a day?

Speaker C: Um, a lot of, uh, Facebook posts. Uh, I've had. I've got a Google, um, business, um, set up with that. That's not professionally done. That's done by me. If you look at it, you'll be like, yeah, he doesn't know what he's doing on this stuff. I've had a guy set up a website for me, but it's always, uh. How do I put it? It's just. It doesn't work out with me and him setting up a website. I have a local kid that's going to start doing all my web work for me, and then, um, I'm in a small community. Uh, if you look on a map where I'm at, if you look at Michigan, find Detroit and go two hours straight north, which will put you in the thumb of Michigan. So, I mean, this area is not a pass through town. Everybody knows everybody. Uh, yeah, it's. It's not a big area. So a lot of, hey, we'll. We'll given deals and. And, um, word of mouth. Word of mouth is about my biggest up here, probably.

Speaker B: Yes, yes, yes. So, like, the last episode we had Rob Torres, and he talked about his website, and it's just a simple little website. It's a platform called Wix.com and it has a scheduling feature in there. It just. You just go there, click a button, schedule it. Just like you scheduled the podcast with me on Calendly. And, uh, it works great for him. He doesn't do any advertisement. It's all word of mouth. He goes to a little seaside village there in Massachusetts and does 90 of his business. But other people I talked to. I talked to Anthony in, uh, Louisville, and he only does Facebook ads. He. He has one ad he's run for 10 years. It's in the. And then 90% of his business isn't in Louisville. It is on the outskirts. So he travels an hour each direction, but he'll knock out five cars at a time. So I'm m saying is a. If you might want to check out Wix.com on the scheduling thing on their little website, if you need help with that. I have, uh, my web designer is also here locally that used to work for me that she could set that up in like five minutes and then check out Facebook ads. You do a simple ad and he's been publishing that for 10 years. And every time he wants customers, he pushes it and turns it on. He gets a bunch of customers, he turns it off because he, uh, and he's making a thousand dollars a day on three to four cars and he gets to home school his kids and, and that kind of stuff. So these are just ideas. Uh, and it's all, you know, there's all these guys are local and you know, so may want to think about that is, you know, you have how many people that live in your local area and everybody's on Facebook. So it pops up and they're like, oh, yeah, I need to get the car cleaned or I need to sell the car and I need Jeff to take care of this. And I heard he's awesome. How do I schedule appointment with him? Oh, go to his website. It's on the ad. And then they, uh, make an appointment. So these are just ways to help you make more money?

Speaker C: Yep.

Speaker B: And that's the whole point of this podcast, is to help detailers make more money.

Speaker C: That would be nice. More money.

Speaker B: Yes, yes, yes. So how about a tip or trick? How about a tool or something that you use in your business that you think everybody should be using to help them save time and money?

Speaker C: Um, man, I don't want to give away my secrets. I've worked really hard finding all these. I'll give a free one out. Um, and I found it by accident. Um, I also tint windows. Um, that was another thing that I brought in to try to

Speaker B: make, uh,

Speaker C: more money and, uh, fill in the down times. But, uh, one of the things that we use for detail or for window tinting is baby shampoo. Is what you use to clean your windows and everything else like that. Yes, there is. I'm sure I'm going to get everybody. Like, you can't use that. That's old technology. Well, it works for me, so I'm going to keep using it. Um, I just don't like buying the expensive solutions for window tint when you don't have to. The old stuff still works well, anyways, I slopped some on a door. Um, and I'm like, well, I gotta get that all mopped out. It actually cleaned the door better than half of the stuff that I use. I'm like, okay, this is weird. So we start playing around with it a little bit more. And for a majority of the stuff it works for, I would say 80%. And it's just baby shampoo. It's safe for everything. It doesn't, uh, dry outdoors like some of your, your APC stuff does, or damage it. So. And it's, it's stupid, simple and super cheap. It's like six drops of baby shampoo into distilled water. That's it, ready to go. So that would be one of my, my things that I kind of stumbled across. And we use it a lot. We honestly do. Um, the other thing, um, if somebody's starting out a decent air compressor and air blowers, um, the tornadors, you gotta have those. You cannot detail a car without one. I'm telling you right now, if, if you don't have one, go buy one. Uh, you won't regret it. It'll save you a ton of time.

Speaker B: Um, and this is blowing out pet hair and crumbs and pet, uh, hair.

Speaker C: We always, we always do a, uh, okay, we bring in a vehicle, we do door jams obviously first. Um, and then two guys will go in with, with blowers and start blowing the top of the dashes. Any, like you said, dog hair, whatever. Let's get the stuff on the floor so it's easier to take care of or blow it right out of the vehicle. Um, and we do that quick and then do a, ah, quick vac with the Tornadors. There's another one that has uh, a vacuum application to it. Another end. I use that in like when you do your final vac, when you're throwing everything back in. It's like done. It's, it's that fast. So those, those would be the couple things that I would say if you're just detailing and not worrying about paint corrections or anything like that, you have to have those. It's right. It's a must.

Speaker B: Well, you said something a second ago. Ah, it, it's a secret or something like that. So back a long time ago, 20 something years ago, I used to talk to detailers and, and um, I always encourage you guys to, um, network with your other detailers because you may have too much work or maybe they have too much work and they can give some to you and vice versa. Ah, the tint Guys, the PPF guys, the PDR guys, Everybody should be networking. And I remember guys a long time ago, but he'll learn my secrets. I'm like, dude, it's a car. How many secrets could you have?

Speaker C: Well, um, we've. I've been struggling with, uh. When we put up the new shop, we're going to do a couple fun things. Obviously, it's going to be at my home, so it's. It's easier to set stuff up. We're going to do car shows. Uh, we're gonna do like, a coffee, uh, and donut Saturdays and stuff like that.

Speaker B: There you go.

Speaker C: We've got all the, all the old timers that don't bring out their cars. But maybe once a year, let's. Let's see if we can't coax them out to bring them out five, six times a year, actually. Drive them, enjoy them. Um, but then one of the things I wanted to do was, uh, do classes. And, uh, everybody I've talked to as far as family members, oh, Jeff, don't do that. Why would you. Why would you show them what you do? And I'm like, well, showing them what I do and then. And have them actually know how to do it is two totally different things. Yeah, I might some, uh, say paint, corrections, whatever. Um, say if somebody just wants to put a sealer on it with an orbital, I can show them how to do that. And they'll be like, man, this is really easy. This one I'm going to do with mine. Well, now that guy is happy. He's like, hey, if you got a problem, go talk to Jeff. And I have no problem talking to customers. And if they come to me and say, hey, how do I take care of this? This is how you take care of it. I, I try to show them how to do it, or at least tell them, and nine times out of 10, they're like, nah, you can just handle it. I'm like, okay, that's fine.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So let me go into that. So you got to look at some psychology. You know, people have expensive cars, they have great, um, ambition. But actually, like you said, they make. They're probably not going to do it, but they would love to think that, oh, I know how to do it. I'll just let Jeff do it. So, so that's where, uh, I think that's. It's a scarcity mindset when you say, oh, well, they might, they might learn what, you know, you're the professional. You know, you could go try gymnastics. But until you're a professional gymnastics guy, you know, you're not going to be out there doing professional gymnastics no matter how many people you talk to about gymnastics. You know what I mean? So being the local guy and you teaching people how to do these games or at least showing them, it shows. They're like, oh my God, I was just hiring you to uh, you know, do my car. I had no idea. It takes all this time, effort, energy, tools, products. No wonder you're so expensive.

Speaker C: And that is, that is one of the number one things. And I always like it when people come to the shop because when I get them face to face, explain to them, hey, this is why this costs so much. Um, when for example, uh, newer, newer trucks, um, a lot of cars are switching to this too. They all have that carpet wheel liner. It's a pain in the butt to clean. So if I'm doing a normal pickup, wheels, tires, wheel Wells, you're almost 45 minutes to do them, right? By the time you get that carpet all washed out, all that. And they're like, oh, I get it. Well, so and so down the road is only doing it, uh, charging for 150 to do the whole vehicle. And my comment to everyone that says that, ah, is, and I, I flat out tell them if you're happy with them, that's where you need to stay because you're not going to be happy with me.

Speaker B: Or you know what I tell those people, you know, hey, you can go ahead. Matter of fact, I got his number right here. I can even make you an appointment and go, go try, you know, uh, Johnny, wreck my ride. When, when you come back, it's going to be double because he's going to swirl that pain even more. And uh, I have to charge you double, uh, when you come back. So, or we could just take care of it today.

Speaker C: We, we definitely have a few of those. And uh, I always laugh because he's always mad at me. And uh, he is my best advertisement ever. Like he, he's non stop griping about me. Um, and it's like, that's fine. I mean I've even tried to work with them in the past. And like, listen, we're in a small area, kind of like back to what you said on networking. I was swamped. Like I was three months out. I felt bad for people calling, wanting their stuff done. Um, and they need it done because they're going on vacation or they have something coming up that they want a clean vehicle for. And I'm like, I just, I, I'm Only one guy.

Speaker B: I.

Speaker C: There's only X amount I can do a day. So I. I kind of reached out to him about it, and he kind of blew me off. And, uh, I'm glad that I did end up not neck working with a lot of guys, um, for that reason, because what they do and what I do are different. Is what they're doing wrong. Um, I would say no, but it's not what I do, if that makes any sense.

Speaker B: Yeah, quality is important and professionalism. And are you following up and. And, you know, does. Is the customer super happy? I mean, the minute they're, yeah, I paid you all this money, but it's okay. They're never coming back to you. And they're going to tell.

Speaker C: Okay is not good. Yeah, yeah. O. Okay is not. Not all right. They like. And that's one of the things I've tried to do over the years. Okay.

Speaker B: Um,

Speaker C: this detail, we're, like, super ahead of schedule. Hey, let's throw in. Let's ceramic their glass. Um, let's do something extra. Something. We're going too fast through this. Let's make sure they're getting their money's worth. And that's my biggest thing, too, because I charge a lot of money for details. I get it. Um, if. If I was a customer, I would have a hard time spending the kind of money that I charge. Um, but by the same token, like I tell everybody else, I'm with your car for almost eight hours, whether it's me by myself or I got extra guys in the shop, um, it takes about eight hours to go through your vehicle and everything done before you get it back. So, I mean, that takes time. That costs money.

Speaker B: So I also look at a different way. Again, we go back to the gymnastics side. You want to learn gymnastics from, you know, just your buddy, that's fine. But if you want to know professionally how to do things, or maybe your. Your kid is into gymnastics, when you talk to a professional now, you got to pay that professional for their time. But again, goes back to eight hours. What professional can you hire for eight hours and them charge you a hundred bucks? Try, you know, try getting a plumber. No matter where you are in the country, a plumber, electrician, anybody. To come to your house and do something for eight hours, there's going to be four figures on there, not just two or three. So, uh.

Speaker C: Right. And that's. That's where I'm at. And, uh, the. The only downside, I would be doing a lot, a lot better if I wasn't in the area that I'm in because it's 90% farming up here. Um, and farmers, as a general rule, they're tight with their money, uh, rightfully so. They never know what the markets are going to be the following season either. So, um, I just keep pecking away at those guys and uh, I can always tell if they had a good year or not because their wives are bringing in their vehicles to get done. And yeah, we're gonna, we're gonna bring in, uh, my husband's too. He doesn't know it, but he's getting his vehicle done too. So they're all happy when they get their vehicles back. But, uh, to break into that farming, uh, market, that's tough.

Speaker B: It is, it is. Do you do email marketing by any chance? You have email addresses of all your customers?

Speaker C: No, it's pretty much when I get slow or uh, I know which ones like to have their stu, uh, regularly. So I'll get a hold of them, say, hey, it's been three months, I haven't seen you. You want to get back on the books? Oh, yeah, absolutely. I forgot. So it's, it's basically me on the phone. Um, am I missing out on a lot of that kind of stuff? Yes, but by the same token, the area that I'm in, um, a lot of them don't even look at their emails. They, they want a phone call, they want to talk somebody. Um, they don't want to go online and schedule their own appointment. They want to talk to somebody when, when they're scheduling, um, which I don't have a problem for, but I know I'm leaving uh, some on the table for not having that automatic.

Speaker B: Right. So yeah, of course some of those guys, they're, they're going to be, uh, older, they're going to be a little bit more tech non savvy and they want the old fashioned, pick up the phone and call me kind of thing. I totally understand that. Especially in your area. Yeah, great, great, great. How about Facebook marketing? Uh, any other marketing to get eyeballs on what you have going on?

Speaker C: Um, I pretty much just do Facebook. I started with TikTok just because I got sick of the before and after. That's. That was the only thing that you could see. Um, I got a couple other buddies, uh, that do really, really good on TikTok. I got a guy up by me that paints old refrigerators and he's got something like a million followers or something. Ridiculous amount. And I'm like, how does that work? He goes, he goes, I Don't understand how he goes. It was just dumb luck that it took off. He goes in, just keeps going. And I'm like. So I start playing with it. And he kind of gave me some pointers on how to do it. And I start playing with some videos. Um, but mostly I, I make the videos on TikTok to move them over to Facebook. Um, and then I ended up finding out some of my music didn't transfer over, blah, blah, blah. But now it is. It's a long story. But, um, what I found out with Facebook is you gotta put a post out and you gotta be patient with it. You gotta let it do its thing. It's gonna take a week, week and a half. You're not gonna. I won't put a post on and expect my phone to ring the following day. It just don't work like that with my following. Um, I gotta put it out there. It'll take week, week and a half to get the ball rolling on it.

Speaker B: Do you boost the post locally?

Speaker C: Um, I've boosted the post in the past, but I can't tell you that I benefited from it or not.

Speaker B: Well, uh, one thing that I talk about quite a bit is trying to figure out your top one to three customers. It could be if you were in a different location. I mean, I'm trying to think of one in your location. Let's just say a farmer who has the big, you know, F350. He Farming went great this year. And, and you've done seven of these in a row from all of his buddies. And you know that there is, you know, 200 more out there in the community, around your area. So you, you craft this Persona of farmer Jed and he, uh, you know, he has this kind of. And he hangs out over here and he goes to this restaurant and he's, he's a member of the ffa, whatever. I'm just making some of these things. You can dial Facebook in to these things. And maybe farmer Jed isn't on Facebook, but maybe his family is and they will see some of these things. So you can dial it into geographic area, likes, interests, and down to almost a single person. So, uh, you, you're not just shotgunning it out, you're literally pinpointing it to the people that you want. What if you only did F350s? That's all you did. You were the F350 guy, you know, so that. So I have some guys up here in Portland, they only do Teslas. They do PPF wrap and ceramic coatings on Teslas and they franchise tension. Well, last time I checked they had six locations around the country. They don't do other cars, they only do Teslas. So I'm just saying that just blows

Speaker C: my mind that you can live just off doing. Well, funny story is I actually did a Tesla. I put icon, uh, coating on it and it's one of four in my area. There's only like four Teslas in Huron County. That's it. Wow. So that tells you how behind the times we are here.

Speaker B: You, you can't drive down the street for two minutes here without seeing 10.

Speaker C: Yeah. So like when I went and got trained uh, to do window tint, I did uh, three Teslas for window tint. And I was laughing and the guy that was, was teaching me goes, what's so funny? I'm like, I just did every Tesla in Huron County. We, we don't have any more than this now obviously summertime, because we're more of a resort area, um, about seven miles from me. That's where everybody from Detroit's got summer homes and, and whatnot. It's a different story summertime and holidays. But like on a normal day to day there's, you just don't see that stuff.

Speaker B: Right, right, right, right. So I encourage you to, to dial in the, the, the Facebook, uh, marketing to a more pinpoint and you're, and then write down your ideal Persona. And then I have another thing called the, the, the, the. The dream 100 is try to find a hundred of the, the top people in your area. You're like, oh, I could never do his car. Well maybe you can. So you know, the top rancher, the top guy, the guy that owns the golf course, the guy, the top people, uh, you'd love to do those cars on a regular basis. And then you go, and you, and you, and you try to go get a hold of them, say, hey, can I talk to Mr. Smith? He's busy. Oh man. So you just keep trying and finally you're like, hey, you know, I'm the local detailer guy. I know you have a whole car collection. I would love to maintain that for you. Oh, well, Johnny does that. Okay, great. And then the guy calls, oh, Johnny quit. So I need a guy now. So you just never know. And so there's the Persona and the Dream 100. There's a whole bunch of different things out there to uh, to get your, your word out to, to gain more customers and of course make more money.

Speaker C: Right.

Speaker B: So those are some tips for me. So how about we go before we wrap up here, how about some tips for the upand cominging or even the seasoned professional?

Speaker C: Um, well, for the upand cominging, um, just because you get a little bit of money and you get a little traction, be smart about it. Um, I think I jumped in a little bit too soon. Um, where it bit me. There was a lot of things and if you've detailed a car. We're problem solvers. That's what we are. We don't know what, what is on the carpet. You have to figure it out. You have to figure out what the best method. Not everything works. Um, and there's never one stain that's the same and you got to figure out how to get it out. So just because you make a little bit of money, think about it, there's a lot to it. I mean when I got started I never thought about insurance. I mean uh, so there's another payment in heat and everything. So when you do it, um, just make sure that you got all your ends covered and you, you've um, you've dabbled in everything as far as removing scratches and I've been doing this, I even painted cars. That's what I went to school for was actually painting cars. I, for paint corrections. I still run into issues every once in a while. Um, so everything changes with that. A seasoned guy. Um, I guess I wouldn't consider my guy, me a seasoned guy yet. As far as ah, ah, professional detailer. I've only been doing this full time for like five years. Um, have I done my fair share and yeah, I've probably done. I couldn't even tell you how many cars I've done over the years. But I, I really ain't got nothing for the, for the, for the season guy because he's already seen it.

Speaker B: Right, right. Well I would disagree on the the season part. I believe you're, you're definitely can be up there in the, the shelf of season guys. Uh, so on the, on the other thing with the new or anybody actually. And, and we did talk about this with the, on the previous podcast the 90 Day Rule. So you may have be successful today and you have non stop pro, non stop details to take care of doesn't mean you can slack off on the marketing on the posting of, of before, during and after pictures because that 90 days will come up and you're like wait, the phone isn't ringing. Nobody's emailing me. So you got to be a, it's got to be do your work, do some marketing. You, you got to be Both those guys all the same time. Because if not in 90 days you're going to be wondering where everybody is.

Speaker C: Yep. And I've it, I, I'm, I'm guilty of that. Um, this summer it was such a nut house. Um, I had two high school kids in helping me out. I had my, my part time guy that's been helping me probably for the last three years. I was non stop like three, four months, just detail after like we, I couldn't even take a break if I wanted to. Um, and I, I slacked off. I had tons of business and right now I'm like, why is. Oh yeah, I really slacked off on, on my posts and, and putting stuff out there. So now I'm kind of starting back over and it's going to take a month, two months to get traction again and get that phone ringing and get everything going. So. Yeah, you're 100% right on that. If, if you've got a good thing with marketing and stuff, don't stop. Just don't, don't stop. Keep it going. Because um, that is your bread and butter. That's what's gonna put food on your table. Um, so that, that would be. Yeah, I know some of the seasoned guys, they're like uh. And I run into it too. It's like you can only put so much on, on Facebook and run this. You're repeating everything you say constantly. And it's like it gets old. But you know what, it's something new. It gets it in front of. If it only gets it in front of one more person that hasn't viewed it, well, that's one more that you haven't had before. That senior stuff maybe, hey, I like his stuff. So like it, or if nothing else she goes, or he, or she uh, go to work and say, hey, I seen this on, on Facebook. Uh, Mallory's detail shop. Anybody here? And all of a sudden you've got coffee hour. And that's the only thing they've been talking about. So yeah, it's, it's all that little stuff that you have to make that's almost more important. I wouldn't say that's more important than the details, but uh, that gets the details in the door.

Speaker B: Right? Right. And you could, you could pick a problem per car. Let's just say you had that stain that couldn't get out. Or it looks like Johnny, uh, washes his car with a brick. Do you see these scratches? Film it, put it online, bingo, you know, or say, hey, I'm gonna do some Stuff with your car while we're, you know, and then they can see their car online, turn on the camera. It doesn't take much to film that scratch to film that, that stain. Here's the guys taking out the stain. Here's the stain afterwards. It literally is. Takes seconds. It took me time to, to say it. You could have already filmed it and posted it. And then, by the way, we have a 25% discount or a $25 discount if you get in here before, before Christmas, boom. And you push the button. It doesn't take that much time. It just takes shoot it. And then if you, you know, I talk about this with people, uh, with cap cut on the video editor. Well, I'm not a video editor. Well, they have templates that you download on your phone and you just push a button, replace picture or video with that, with that stain. Uh, video. And then the second one and then, and you. And then push export and then push upload to Facebook. It's just done in 20 seconds. And uh, then you're off doing the rest of the car and people are seeing this. Oh, did you see my car on, on his Facebook page? And here it is. Doesn't look like he washes it with a brick. Oh, yeah, I think I do. And then I'll check it out here. And then Johnny comes in and he's like, wait, wait, that can't be my car. I brought you this scratch looking thing. No, no, that's your car. We got all the scratches out, ceramic coated. It looks wonderful. What do you think? Oh my God. You got to get, you guys got to get your car in here too, because this looks amazing. And those kind of testimonials just. Next thing you know, you're. You got to beat off people. Yeah. Just like get away. No, I'm done for the season or something like that.

Speaker C: So yeah, it's, it's. And I, I always gripe about it too because like I said, my wife's. My wife's, uh, uh, in taxes and stuff. So her busy time's just starting to ramp up right now. And then her slow time is my super, super busy time. And it's like I hate going anywhere because when I come back from a, uh, three, four day weekend, Mondays are horrible. Absolutely horrible. And so it's like, uh, I, I wish my busy seasoning coincided with hers so we could do more stuff. But that's, that's what you're gonna sign up detailing. It's. It's feast or famine. A lot of times it's I, I

Speaker B: visited Thomas Sanders in Alabama a few years ago and he was telling me that people, they're so loyal to him that people would buy a brand new Mercedes. And he's like, okay, well just uh, I'm four weeks out. Okay, I'll just park it in the garage. These people park their brand new car in the garage and then take it to him four weeks later. I think that's mind blowing.

Speaker C: Yep. And uh, I do have a few of them like that.

Speaker A: Um,

Speaker C: not, not Mercedes, obviously we don't have that kind of caliber of cars. But like I, I tell everybody else, it's like, well, I'm not, I'm not driving a Ferrari or, or a Porsche. And I'm like, how much did you just pay for that super duty? Well, it was like a hundred and some thousand. I'm like, you're pretty much driving a sports car, buddy. That's. You really are. But, um, yeah, I have a few guys that. Hey, so and so dealership wants me to put, it wants to put a ceramic on my vehicle. And I'm like, I'm begging you, please do the research on it. We're not comparing apples to apples. So you're going to spend twelve hundred dollars and you're going to wash it off in three months.

Speaker B: It's going to be still a jet or just uh, it's junk. Total, total junk.

Speaker C: And I actually got kicked out of a dealership. I'm no longer allowed, uh, back in that dealership ever again for, uh, basically calling them out on it. And uh, that's a whole nother podcast, trust me.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker C: But um, yeah, that's, that's the. And when you're starting out detailing, you got to be careful with that because you do want to have your foot in dealerships for whatever reason you, um, screw up. Uh, well, perfect example. Uh, my son was 15 at the time. He's like, dad, I want to come help you at the shop. Cool. Come on, let's, let's go do it. And we have the power brushes and he was power brushing the carpet, vacuuming and whatnot. And I'm like, man, that drill sounds weird. And I looked over and he's just pushing on it for everything he's worth. Using a Chevy pickup on the floorboard, uh, right where the transmission hump meets the floor pan remains right in that corner. And I'm like, uh, that, that don't work. And uh, he pulled the drill back and he actually killed the carpet. Like There's a perfect 3 inch circle where the carpet was that was just burnt.

Speaker B: Oops.

Speaker C: I called, I called the dealership, said, hey, this is what happened. This, I need this, like yesterday. Next day, the carpet was there. They're like, hey, Jeff, your stuff's here. So you want to make sure you're, you're friends with all those guys. But by the same token, you have to make sure your customers are aware of, uh, not getting taken advantage of, um, don't get scammed by

Speaker B: detailers, uh,

Speaker C: that aren't doing what they're supposed to do, um, just putting something up to cover up scratches and say, I just gave you a paint correction. No, that's not the case. And we all know those, those detailers car, um, dealerships are kind of number one right off the top of the page. They put that grease on them. Man, that car looks really good, uh, until you wash it two, three times. And. Well, what. Why are all these cars all scratched? Well, they put a filler on it. That's all there is to it. So, yeah, it's, it's another one of those problems that you got to figure out how to do and, uh, and, and be still friends with everybody at the end of the day.

Speaker B: Right? And that comes out to education. We talked before just to sum all this up, you know, um, educating your customers. I do believe you should have a YouTube channel and you should have your Facebook and Instagram as a minimum. Tick Tock. I'm not sure where the Tick tock makes money, but, uh, there it is. People would argue with me on that side to have all of them. And it's a lot to have too many of them. But minimum of Facebook and, uh, Instagram. But you should also transfer it over to YouTube because that is the second most visited, uh, website in the world versus second to Google, and Google owns both. But the reason why is because you're the trusted expert of what you're doing. I'm going to show you what I'm doing. Now I know why. Things we already talked about. Now I know. Now I know why you're so expensive. Because this stuff takes time, effort and, uh, professionalism to figure stuff out. You're a problem solver. So you have a problem, you're the solution. So, uh, you know, that's why people are going to go to you to solve their problems. Cars cost much. Uh, F350 Super Duty is going to be a hundred and something. Thousand dollars. You want Johnny Wreck My Ride to take that wheel and start buffing up and down on that thing and making X files holograms in the Door. You know, it's like I only.

Speaker C: I only laugh because I've seen it. We all have.

Speaker B: I guess that's why I got the name Johnny Wreck My Ride. Because there was a shop here, and I was picking my son up from basketball, and, uh, it was pride in my ride. And I just watched him walk up and down with the edge of this rotary. And I look at it, and it was just like snow snakes coming around like. Like. Like Chinese, uh, New Year snakes. And then they got in and they drove it back to the dealership, and I'm like, no, no, that's not pride of my ride. That's Wreck My Ride. So now it's Johnny from Wreck My Ride.

Speaker C: Yeah, I. Oh, that just makes me. Makes my skin crawl. It's like I've seen. Oh, I'm starting to do paint, uh, corrections and this, that, and the other thing. It's like, oh, go, go. Go to a junkyard, find a junk hood, Mess that up. You gotta. You gotta m. Mess up a lot to get good at this. It's not, hey, I'm gonna start doing this, and I'm perfect. No, you gotta. You gotta screw up a lot of stuff before you become good at something you really do.

Speaker B: Yes, yes, yes. And there's a whole other podcast on all of that as well, but let's. Let's button this up. Hey. Hey, Jeff. Where can we find you and your website?

Speaker C: Um, I would say the best place to find me is on Facebook. Mallory's, uh, Detail Shop. Um, like I said, I've got it in the works of coming up with a new, uh, website and whatnot. It's. But like I said, that's still in the works right now, so.

Speaker B: Okay, great, great, great. All right. Mallory's Detail Shop in Michigan on Facebook and a, uh, new website on its way. I totally appreciate you being on the show, and, uh, we'll see you on the next show. All right?

Speaker C: All right, sounds good.

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